The UNlucky Day

Charlotte narrowed her eyes at the home improvement project in front of her. Knocking down this one dining room wall would give her a much needed larger living room. She didn't really need a dining room anyway. To her, a dining room meant family holidays and gatherings. She was pretty sure it was going to be nothing but sitcoms and TV dinners for her for awhile. He told her she could keep everything. All he wanted was his freedom to marry her instead.

Charlotte angerly wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks with the back of her hand. Grabbing the sledgehammer next to her and with all her strength, she began to swing it as fast as she could making huge holes in the drywall. After only minutes, she had demolished a large enough portion of the wall to expose the wood framing underneath. Letting out a scream, she landed one final blow which cracked the drywall all the way to the baseboard. As it fell away, Charlotte dropped the sledgehammer and rested her hands on her knees, panting heavily. The plaster dust started to clear and Charlotte could see that there was something wrapped in what appeared to be a dirty rag or cloth inside the wall. She picked it and started unwrapping it as she walked over to the dining room table to sit down. It was a black book. It didn't have a title or an author, just a plain black velvet cover. As she slowly opened it to the first page, the stiff binding creaked and groaned...it obviously had not been opened very often. On the first page was an inscription: "This is your lucky day!" Intrigued, Charlotte started thumbing through the pages. "That's strange." She thought to herself. She was pretty sure that it was a diary, but there were only a hand full of entries and each one was written in a different hand. Even that wasn't the strangest thing. Each entry was written in the book roughly 20 years apart from each other...the first one being from May of 1861 and the last one from November of 2001. They all told different tales of woes and wishes throughout the years. This was February of 2021. Was it a coincidence that she found this black book when she did? Charlotte didn't think so and she took it as a sheer sign that things would be better now. After all, it said it was her lucky day!

Charlotte eagerly flipped through the book to the next blank page and started to write: "It's been six months since you left to be with her. I've been trying to stay busy. You said I could keep the house but you didn't have any good suggestions on how I was going to afford it on my own, so yeah...thanks for that! It's really hard loving someone who doesn't love you back. I wish things were different and I didn't have to feel so sad." Charlotte felt good about her entry, but her mood quickly changed to sadness. After closing the book, with a heavy heart, she turned out the lights and went to bed.

The next morning, Charlotte was awoken by the front doorbell followed by loud banging! Jumping out of bed, she grabbed her robe and started down the hall toward the front door. As she passed the dining room, she stopped and backed up slowly. She froze and stared in disbelief as the wall was untouched, but the book was still on the table and it was open to the first page. In the inscription, someone or something had inserted the prefix "UN" before the word "lucky" in what looked like blood. Charlotte shook her head in denial. She wasn't seeing this!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Again on the front door. Charlotte briefly converted her attention and swung it open wildly. Her obvious annoyance and frustration was quickly replaced with fear. Standing there on her front porch was a man. At least he looked like a man, but his skin and hair looked plastic in nature. He had a blank stare and a sinister smile that made Charlotte uneasy. He was holding a bunch of balloons and a giant fake paper check written out to her for $20,000.

"Hello Miss Charlotte Bingham! You are the next winner in the Lucky Day Sweepstakes! Congratulations! This is your lucky day!"

Charlotte paused for a moment. "Uh...thank you." She said quietly. She barley left her threshold as she leaned way in to take the check and balloons from the man. She had to almost pry them away from him because his hands and arms stayed frozen in place as if still holding the giant check. The man stayed completely still and stared at her soullessly; never saying another word as she slowly closed the front door. Leaning her head against the door for a moment, she peered through the peephole. The man was gone! Charlotte put the chain on her door and cracked it open. It was as if the man just disappeared into thin air!

The right amount of confusion and unexplained events had led Charlotte to this moment of sheer incredulity as she stared at an untouched dining room wall; and now, the black book was missing too. Charlotte just stood with her hands on her hips, chuckling to herself. Suddenly, there was another knock on the door.

"Who the hell is it now?" She yelled through the door.

"Miss Bingham? Miss Charlotte Bingham? Would you open the door please? This is Sheriff Montgomery from the Hawk County sheriff's department."

Charlotte opened the door slowly. "Yes?"

"Would you come out here onto the porch please Miss Bingham?" The Sheriff asked politely. Charlotte obliged, but she was quickly spun around and handcuffed.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Charlotte yelled.

"You're under arrest for the murder of Kyle Anderson." The Sheriff said. "You have the right to remain silent..." Kyle was her ex-fiancé but she hadn't seen him or heard from him in months!

As the sheriff led Charlotte down her driveway to an awaiting police vehicle, she tried to defend herself. "Wait a minute! I didn't do this! You have the wrong person!"

After securing Charlotte in the back of the police car, the officer leaned down, laughed, and then said, "This must be your UNlucky day!" The sheriff's laugh deepened and began to distort as he slammed the car door shut. Charlotte could be seen with her face pressed against the back window.

"Help me! Someone please help me!" Charlotte's cries began to fade as the police car disappeared into a cloud of dust.